Stranger in a not-so-strange land
Tamie was at home with Julia today and was feeling photographic. Julia, luckily, was feeling photogenic. So with a camera in hand and a smile on face, they whiled away the day. What a pair, eh? They even took some video.
When Layla got home from daycare, she joined in on the fun. I’ve put all the pictures of the day up in the gallery. Click the image below (or press the Gallery link at the top. =)
Just updated the videos page – now it automatically picks up changes when I upload a video to youtube. It’ll have to change once I upload more than 50 videos, but for now that’s safe. =)
PHP Regex FTW!
So now the gallery page is self-generating, the videos page is self-updating… I just need to figure out how to make these blog posts write themselves.
Saturday was a day of hospital visits (unfortunately no doctors give out lollipops here). In the morning, we took Layla for another checkup – she’d been to the doctor a couple times during the week because of a seal-bark-like cough that turned out to be croup. Saturday was a scheduled check to see how it was progressing… not well. Not only does she still have croup, but apparently is in the middle of an asthma attack too. She needed the nose vacuum and her cries were heard throughout the entire hospital floor. After the vacuum, she had to suck on medicine (in vapour form) for ten minutes, which isn’t anything except for the fact they attached a monitor to her thumb that reminded her of when she was checked into the hospital… then the tears flowed again.
After Layla’s ordeal at the hospital, we headed to Hon Atsugi for lunch. Tamie had a dentist appointment at 2, so we had enough time for lunch beforehand. I took Layla home while Tamie visited her dentist… after the dental, Tamie had a doctor’s appointment of her own, so we played some more before Layla took a nap. Tamie came back just in time for dinner. Lots of doctors on that day…
Today we decided to hit up the park instead. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and the kid was eager to slide so slide she did. Twice. There were too many kids about and Layla wasn’t about to have to wait in line to have fun so we bailed on the playground. We looked around the park a bit, stopped for a snack, and played frisbee and toss the child for a while before Layla asked for her expected frappuccino.
For two days we’d been hearing “I want a matcha fraponiconni (and various other Layla pronunciations)”. Today, she finally got it and she enjoyed it. I think Starbucks should hire the kid and put her in a commercial here – she’d be a hit. And I hope we’d save a fair bit of money if we were employees.
At dinner tonight, we had some strawberries for dessert that Layla was eager to have. As usual, we told her to finish most of her food before she could have dessert and she begrudgingly was convinced to sit and eat her food. When she finally finished, she looked at my rice bowl and told me I needed to finish the pieces of rice I didn’t eat before I could have my dessert. I don’t usually make the effort to get every single grain of rice as my skill with chopsticks isn’t that great and neither are my patience for such things. Also, eating rice follows the rule of diminishing returns. Layla didn’t care about that though – she went so far as to pick up my bowl and use her own spoon to feed me – telling me to open my mouth for the “rice train”. Real cute.
As usual, you can check out the gallery for pictures of the weekend:
 Saturday |
 Sunday |
I’ve been debating back and forth whether or not to post pictures of our poor, imprisoned girl online… I haven’t taken many, but I figured I might as well put them online now since I’ve uploaded a video thanking her Grandma for the pillows (which I forgot to link to in the last entry).
So, without further ado… The video:
And the pictures:
Weekends are supposed to be times of a little R&R and a lot of sleeping in. This weekend was a little bit different.
Saturday started like any other weekday, the alarm buzzing at a too early hour in the morning and the snooze button being overused in an attempt to gain ten more minutes of well-deserved rest. We had to get up early because there was a daycare event taking place that we needed to attend.
Thinking back to last year’s daycare day, the one with the race that I had to carry Layla from the start to the end as she cried throughout, made me all the more anxious to turn off the alarm and resume my dreams of lollipops and hand grenades (don’t ask…). Unfortunately, or fortunately, Tamie was more eager to go and got us all out of our beds and ready to go. Her parents were on their way to pick us up in their brand spanking new Prius (go Nissan).
After Tamie called the daycare to find out where the thing was actually taking place, we were all on our way. Interestingly, they had two different locations picked out, one for a rainy day and one for a sunny day. As we pulled up to the sunny day location, of course it started to rain. If only they’d had some way to forecast the weather and know that after a full week of rain that there’d be one more day of it. Ah, well.
The actual event turned out to be a bit of an eye opener. Layla, our shy, little, afraid-of-her-shadow daughter turned into a confident leader among babies. I guess standing a head taller than everyone else does something to boost her confidence. It was a huge difference from the year before, enough to make me happy we went and enough to make Tamie cry tears of joy as she espoused how proud she was to see Layla jump around rambunctiously.
We watched as kids of all ages danced and raced, but the most (or only, depending on who you ask) interesting times were when Layla was actively participating. The opening ceremonies had everyone dancing around and Layla killed. She had a race that I wish I could say she won, but I don’t really think there was a winner. Everyone who actually makes it to the finish line without help from a parent or daycare staff is considered a winner in my book.
Then the rain came. Not just any rain, a torrential downpour of typhoon-like proportions. The kids all huddled in a corner while the parents all crowded under a tree. The daycare staff scrambled desperately to get everything under cover but were too proud to accept our help when we offered it. Eventually, they moved everything and then everyone into the school’s gym where we continued to watch the kids put on a show.
More races, including one with Tamie and Layla collecting balls in a box and another with Tamie running around the gym with a ping-pong ball on a spoon, ensued until it finally closed up shop. Layla got a Mickey Mouse plate out of the deal and Tamie got some dish soap, so it wasn’t a total loss. Me? I got the satisfaction of seeing my daughter not only actively participate but seemingly enjoy herself at the same time.
Following the event, we took Tamie’s folks out for lunch to a local kushiyagi place (random pieces of deep fried food on sticks) to celebrate Layla’s success. When lunch was finished I took the girls home where they both crashed, Tamie on the bed and Layla on me. I let them sleep until 3:30, the time Tamie told me to wake her up as we were to meet up with some of her friends by 4.
At 4:30 we finally met up with Tamie’s friends. One of them was getting married the next day and they all wanted to do some shopping for costumes. Because the wedding was on October 4th, it was close enough to Halloween that they were having a costume party following the actual wedding ceremony. With cosplay so popular in this country, I was sadly disappointed with their choice of costumes – three matching headpieces that looked like takoyaki (octopus balls).
After the long, arduous shopping adventure, we headed for a restaurant for a quick bite to eat and a mug or two of beer. I didn’t realize how tired I was until after we got home and I fell asleep on Layla’s floor when putting her to bed… and then on the couch after Tamie woke me up and brought me to the living room. Looking back, I should have taken a siesta with the girls in the afternoon… nothing a couple beer didn’t fix =)
Sunday, the day of the wedding, and Tamie was up and gone by 10:30. Layla and I were together again for another adventure in Ebina. I took her to Vina Walk (as usual) to see dogs and babies (as usual), but this time she wasn’t feeling all that well so we came home after not too long. She slept for three hours while I watched the latest Star Trek. (cool movie). When she woke up, I took her to the park where she proceeded to climb up ladders and slide down slides, run from dogs and blow bubbles in the wind.
The laughter and joy came to a sudden, screeching halt when Layla was running and fell, scraping her hands and her knees on the pavement. Considering how often she does it, either she’s going to toughen up, get better balance or we’re going to have to get her some knee pads and wrist guards. I carried her home, stopping only to get the poor kid some ice cream at the grocery store. We had dinner, played and eventually she went to bed.
And, that, mon amis, is that.
Full gallery pictures (with full-sized images) at:
Daycare Gymnastics Day
Chilling With Layla While Tamie Parties at a Wedding